Die for me, Live for me
by CommanderLeska
Summary: A quick one shot based off that small clip of Lexa fighting in the ring.


Wow that trailer, huh? So there's one scene that really got the brain gears going, so I'm back. Read the warnings.

It wasn't meant to go like this, they weren't supposed to be there, there was meant to be free passage through Trikru land for them. But the Ice Nation soldiers appeared out of nowhere, slaughtering Lexa's army as they made their way through the unprepared masses to the two leaders, Heda and Wanheda, Lexa and Clarke. So unprepared for a war, so unprepared to fight back against the enemy they didn't know was coming. Their army was ready to defend the Skaikru from Jaha, not the Trikru's biggest enemy, the Azgeda.

Nia rode at the forefront, that's the one thing Clarke could remember as she watched their men get slaughtered in front of them, she could remember Lexa's shocked voice penetrate the screams, the uttering of the name of the one that took her last love away. The army was so quick, no sooner were Clarke and Lexa out of Lexa's tent, but Nia was upon them, horses surrounding them on the battlefield, the stench of dead Trikru warriors threatening to make Clarke retch as Nia smirked down at them from her stallion. Nia's laugh was the last thing Clarke could remember of that, everything going dark in an instant afterwards.

And then she woke up somewhere new, somewhere cold. Colder than even the nights in the forest, and with the sun shining through the window bars, she knew she had to be in the Ice Nation. At a quick glance around her, it was clear she was in a cell. Crudely constructed, temporary. But it wasn't that that had caught her attention, it was the voices outside, the jarring cheers and yelling. Trigedaslang, if Clarke was correct. Loud. She couldn't reach the window, but it hadn't mattered anyway, the door swung open with a loud whine, 2 large warriors stood waiting on the other side, while another walked in to grab Clarke, coarse rope biting into her wrists as he tied them together, yanking on the rope, pulling her towards the door.

" _Ai Kwin_ wishes to… talk." He snarled, the smell of death on his tongue, and she shivered, pulling back and spitting at the floor where the warrior stood, who laughed at her attempt to stay stone-faced in the face of the Azgeda. "I would not do that, _Wanheda_."

None of them talked again as she was led out into the sunlight, the jeering from the crowd getting louder as she walked up the long tunnel, having flashbacks to the movies she and her dad would watch where they walked a prisoner to the gallows and all they could hear was the jeering of the locals as they were frog marched to their death.

The only difference was when she emerged from the tunnel, the crowd was not facing her, and she saw not a place for her execution, but instead the crowd was facing away, the soft clanging of blades rising over the crowd as they cheered and whistled and yelled at the noise. She was being moved again, towards a wooden structure that rose out of the crowd, dominating the landscape around them. The two warriors lifted Clarke onto the platform, dragging her over towards the woman in the throne in the middle of the platform, but her gaze was focused on the view.

The people stood as a ring, surrounding a dirt patch where two warriors were trying to cleave the other in two, sweat dripping off them despite the cold weather Clarke was having trouble coping with. The two men swung wildly at eachother, one landing a hit causing half the crowd to cheer, and half the crowd to jeer at them.

"Clarke of the Sky People." Clarke whipped her head round at the voice, Nia sat forward in her throne, eyes locked in with Clarke's as she gave her that same sickly smile she had on the battlefield. "You don't have to talk. You can watch the entertainment with me. Amazing, isn't it. Give them enough incentive to win, and they'll fight until they're both dead."

"It's disgusting." Clarke spat, causing Nia to raise an eyebrow in her direction, pulling the Queen's attention away from the ring. "You treat them like gladiators." More films she and Jake used to watch, old Roman films with gladiators fighting to the death, often against eachother, sometimes lions, sometimes slaves and captured enemies, who were given hardly anything against a man fully clad in armour.

"I don't know of these gladiators you speak, Clarke." Nia leaned back in her chair, tearing her focus off Clarke as she held a hand up, and the two fighters came to a stop, leaving the ring at the wave of her hand.

"Don't call me that." Clarke sneered, gritting her teeth at the pull of the binding rope as she did so, as the warrior forced her to watch the ring as Nia chuckled beside her.

"Bring out the champion!" She yelled, ignoring Clarke as a man stepped out of the crowd, armour covering his body head to toe, large spear in his hands, stepping towards the throne, bowing as he did. "You know what your prize is."

" _Sha, Ai Kwin._ " He nodded, bringing his spear up, turning around to face a tunnel much like the one Clarke stepped out of. She watched as Nia nodded to another warrior, who disappeared into the tunnel, and Nia turned to Clarke.

"Is this like your, Gladiators, Clarke?" She asked as she motioned towards the tunnel, and Clarke followed her motion in time to see the warrior drag a very tired looking Lexa, clad in very little armour, nowhere near as much as the spear man. Clarke gasped as she was pushed forward, stumbling to her hands and knees already. She was already beaten and weak, that much was clear, as was clear that she was having trouble gripping the swords thrown down for her.

"You've already hurt her, this is unfair!" Clarke yelled over the sounds of the laughter coming from the crowd, none of which Lexa deserved.

"What's unfair is that she gets to kill my top advisors in her village, and walk away just fine." Nia growled, nodding to the spear man, who stepped towards Lexa, spear drown in front of him, sneer just visible under his helmet.

It was hard for Clarke to watch, trying to keep her eyes closed as the sound of metal hitting metal rang out over and over again, yet she found herself forcing herself to watch, to not let the only people see Lexa like this be people who wanted her dead. She had done, once, but that was long over, and never like this. Not like a Roman slave, thrown into the gladiatorial ring for the amusement of the Emperor.

It's not like Lexa didn't fight hard, she did. But it was obvious from the start who was going to win. He was older than her, he was taller, bigger, armoured, while Lexa was beaten, unprotected, and tired. And Clarke tried, she tried so hard to believe, to hope, but when the hilt of the spear smacked Lexa in the side of the head, time slowed for Clarke.

It slowed down as Lexa spat blood from her mouth, splattering the spear with her blood.

It slowed as Lexa twisted around, falling sideways to the floor with a yell and crunch of bone from under her.

It slowed when Lexa coughed up more blood and rolled onto her back.

It slowed as Clarke yelled for Nia to spare Lexa, promising to do whatever it was Nia wanted.

It slowed as Nia ignored Clarke and nodded again to the spear man.

It stopped when he slammed the spear down.

And all of a sudden, time was back to normal, and Clarke was screaming out for Lexa, struggling so hard the warriors had trouble holding her back as she tried to run into the ring, run to Lexa as she brunette spluttered out her last breaths, tears streaming down both their faces as one collapsed to her knees on the platform and the other lay dying in a pool of their own blood.

And with Lexa's last breath, Clarke promised she wouldn't stop going until she crushed Nia's head beneath her foot.


End file.
